Designing a Simple Loss Function for Central Banks : Does a Dual Mandate Make Sense? /

Yes, it makes a lot of sense. This paper studies how to design simple loss functions for central banks, as parsimonious approximations to social welfare. We show, both analytically and quantitatively, that simple loss functions should feature a high weight on measures of economic activity, sometimes...

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Bibliografiska uppgifter
Huvudupphovsman: Debortoli, Davide
Övriga upphovsmän: Kim, Jinill, Linde, Jesper, Nunes, Ricardo
Materialtyp: Tidskrift
Språk:English
Publicerad: Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2017.
Serie:IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2017/164
Länkar:Full text available on IMF
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100 1 |a Debortoli, Davide. 
245 1 0 |a Designing a Simple Loss Function for Central Banks :   |b Does a Dual Mandate Make Sense? /  |c Davide Debortoli, Jinill Kim, Jesper Linde, Ricardo Nunes. 
264 1 |a Washington, D.C. :  |b International Monetary Fund,  |c 2017. 
300 |a 1 online resource (56 pages) 
490 1 |a IMF Working Papers 
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500 |a <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required 
506 |a Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students 
520 3 |a Yes, it makes a lot of sense. This paper studies how to design simple loss functions for central banks, as parsimonious approximations to social welfare. We show, both analytically and quantitatively, that simple loss functions should feature a high weight on measures of economic activity, sometimes even larger than the weight on inflation. Two main factors drive our result. First, stabilizing economic activity also stabilizes other welfare relevant variables. Second, the estimated model features mitigated inflation distortions due to a low elasticity of substitution between monopolistic goods and a low interest rate sensitivity of demand. The result holds up in the presence of measurement errors, with large shocks that generate a trade-off between stabilizing inflation and resource utilization, and also when ensuring a low probability of hitting the zero lower bound on interest rates. 
538 |a Mode of access: Internet 
700 1 |a Kim, Jinill. 
700 1 |a Linde, Jesper. 
700 1 |a Nunes, Ricardo. 
830 0 |a IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ;  |v No. 2017/164 
856 4 0 |z Full text available on IMF  |u http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2017/164/001.2017.issue-164-en.xml  |z IMF e-Library